Zaid Untuk Rakyat

7.30 pm, Sat, 30.10.2010

KL Hornbill Festival

SABM Sarawak & Sabah Roadshow

Saturday, December 3, 2011

COMMENT For weeks, just in time for Umno's annual general assembly which opened yesterday, the party has been embroiled in an embarrassing scandal involving a 2007 government decision to spend RM300 million to establish a national feedlot corporation to slaughter as many as 60,000 cattle annually under Islamic halal dietary requirements.

The scandal seems emblematic of a long series of such situations that imperil Prime Minister Najib Razak's vow in April 2010 that the government "can no longer tolerate practices that support the behaviour of rent-seeking and patronage, which have long tarnished the altruistic aims of the New Economic Policy."

The National Feedlot Corporation (NFC), as it is known, has never slaughtered 10 percent of the projected total and has since scaled back its target to 8,000 head but hasn't been able to meet that target either.

Worse, the company has been losing millions of dollars every year - while pouring funds into RM10 million into two condominiums in Kuala Lumpur, among other things, and spending RM800,000 for overseas travel and entertainment.

The scandal is doubly embarrassing because the agreement to establish the NFC, made when Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was prime minister, went to the family of Shahrizat Abdul Jalil (right), the minister of women, welfare and community development and head of the women's wing of Umno.

Her husband, Mohamad Salleh Ismail, is the chairman. Her three children are respectively the chief executive officer and executive directors of the company. None had any experience in cattle production or beef supply prior to the establishment of the company.

The report of the NFC's operations was contained in the 2010 report of the auditor-general, which was delayed for weeks before it was finally released. The scandal has generated tensions inside Umno, with some reformers demanding that Shahrizat be forced out of her job as minister.

However, the leadership has circled the wagons to protect her. In particular, Muhyiddin Yassin, the deputy prime minister, has said there was no case to be brought against her. Muhyiddin was the agriculture minister in 2006 when the project was approved. Others who have come to her defence are Abdullah Badawi and his son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin, the head of the Umno Youth Wing.

The NFC scandal is said to have the potential reformers worried because party operatives thought they had the Selangor electorate turned around and that they could take the state back from the opposition Pakatan Rakyat in national elections expected to be called early next year.

However, Asia Sentinel has been told, the refusal to hold anybody to account in the feedlot scandal could well turn the tide back against them, especially as other patronage scandals continue to bubble up.

Mahathir's cadre of 100 super-rich bumis

The depth and breadth of the scandals also calls into question moves earlier this year with Najib launching a series of programmes to develop bumiputera, including allocating an RM2 billion fund for development.

In the 2012 budget, Najib also announced the government would allocate RM200 million to guide 1,100 high-performing bumi companies with the potential for listing on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. Critics are concerned that the patronage system will continue unabated.

The current Umno general assembly was hoped to provide a dramatic backdrop for Najib to win back disaffected Malay voters.

For decades, this patronage has involved highway construction and defence contracts and a variety of other government arrangements with Umno cronies in a plan formulated by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

His ambition was to create a cadre of 100 super-rich bumis who in turn would help rural Malays into prosperity under a ‘konsep payung', or umbrella concept routed through Umno, much the way he envisioned driving the country into industrialisation through massive projects.

However, many of the companies eventually collapsed and are being supported by government institutions such as Kazanah Nasional, the country's sovereign investment fund, or the Employee Provident Fund.

Contained in the same 2010 auditor general's report, for instance, is a passage on the decision to privatise a 77-km stretch of highway from Senai to Desaru in Johor.

The land acquisition turned out to have doubled - from RM385 million to RM740.6 million - with the road surface described as "undulating." The project completion "was not in accordance with specifications, causing damage to the road surface and endangering road users."

The company failed to complete construction within the stipulated period of the contract. However, the construction agreement didn't specify damages in the event it wasn't completed. Required maintenance is described as "unsatisfactory."

The company that won the RM1.7 billion contract is Ranhill Corp Sdn Bhd, which has long been described as Umno-linked. It is partly owned by Lambang Optimia Sdn Bhd. Both are headed by Hamdan Mohamad, described as Malaysia's ‘water baron', who operates several utilities and power companies.

He was one of several ethnic Malay businessmen who followed former PM Mahathir's vow to take Malaysian companies overseas. Another shareholder is YPJ Corp Sdn Bhd, an arm of the Johor state government, and yet another appears to be Umno itself, which owns a minority share through an account at Public Bank Bhd, according to records.

Ranhill has had a lackluster two to three years, capped by disaster earlier in 2011 when its Libyan operations were caught between the Muammar Qaddafi forces and those of the Libyan rebels aided by Nato air strikes.

Overpriced defence hardware

Also, earlier this year, Deftech, a wholly-owned subsidiary of DRB-Hicom, won a contract without an open tender to produce and deliver 237 eight-wheeled armoured personnel carriers to the Defence Ministry.

DRB-Hicom is 55 percent owned by Etika Strategi Sdn Bhd, which is wholly owned by billionaire Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary, one of Mahathir's targeted bumiputeras and a man who is extremely tight with Umno.

Opposition member Tony Pua (left) complained on the floor of Parliament that the average price of RM29.4 million for each unit compared unfavourably with a Portuguese Army purchase of 363 similar vehicles for the equivalent of RM4.4 million each from the Swiss MOWAG CmBH Corp, Malaysia is paying a 6.6-fold increase over the Portguese purchase.

Saudi Arabia, he said, bought 724 such vehicles for the equivalent of RM9.9 million from General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada, with Malaysia paying almost three times as much government officials said the contracts don't compare with each other and that the government is getting more equipment, maintenance, etc. for its money.

"Further research has revealed that DRB-Hicom will be acquiring the AWC technology from a Turkish company - FNSS Defence Systems Inc which manufactures the Pars 8x8 AWV models," Pua said.

"With this deal, Malaysia will be its first foreign customer for this vehicle. What is perhaps of greater alarm is the fact that FNSS has announced that they have sold 257 units of Pars 8x8 AWVs to Malaysia for approximately US$600 million or RM1.83 billion or only RM7.1 million per unit," Pua said in a prepared statement - considerably different from what the Malaysians said they bought the vehicles for.

Pua also complained about the cost of six offshore patrol vessels from Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd at RM1 billion each in the aftermath of another total fiasco.

The auditor-general, in a 2007 report tabled in Parliament, alleged that a contract to build naval vessels given to PSC-Naval Dockyard, a subsidiary of Penang Shipbuilding & Construction Sdn Bhd, which was owned by another Umno crony, Amin Shah Omar Shah (right).

PSC-Naval Dockyard, which was taken over by Boustead, contracted to deliver six patrol boats for the Malaysian Navy in 2004 and complete the delivery in 2007. Those were supposed to be the first of 27 offshore vessels ultimately to cost RM24 billion plus the right to maintain and repair all of the country's naval craft.

But only two of the barely operational patrol boats had been delivered by mid-2006. There were 298 recorded complaints about the two boats, which were also found to have 100 and 383 uncompleted items aboard them respectively.

The original RM5.35 billion contract ballooned to RM6.75 billion by January 2007. The auditor also reported that the ministry had paid out RM4.26 billion to PSC up to December 2006 although only RM2.87 billion of work had been done, an overpayment of RM1.39 billion, or 48 percent. In addition, the cabinet waived late penalties of RM214 million.

Between December 1999, according to the auditor-general, 14 "progress payments" amounting to RM943 million despite the fact that the auditor-general could find no payment vouchers or relevant documents dealing with the payments.

AG: Serious financial mismanagement

The auditor-general attributed the failure to serious financial mismanagement and technical incompetence stemming from the fact that PSC had never built anything but trawlers or police boats before being given the contract.

Once called ‘Malaysia's Onassis' by Daim Zainuddin, Amin Shah was in trouble almost from the start, according to a report in Singapore's Business Times in 2005.

Eventually Boustead PSC was born out of the Royal Malaysian Navy's dockyard facilities which were to provide ship repairs and maintenance services. Under the corporatisation programme advocated by the Malaysian government, the dockyard was set up as Limbungan TLDM, a wholly-owned government company.

It has modern facilities to meet the maintenance requirements of the Royal Malaysian Navy fleet, from hull repairs to major overhauls and from radar refitting to weapon systems refurbishment.

The six patrol boats have now cost five times what the Royal New Zealand Navy paid for its patrol vessels, bought at only RM210 million each from BAE Systems, the second largest global defence company.

The irrepressible Raja Petra Kamarudin in early November found that the Philippines was buying Hamilton-class patrol ships from the US that would be deployed to the West Philippine Sea area to secure the country's natural resources.

The latest one is to be transferred by the first or second quarter of next year, to guard energy projects in Malampaya off Palawan.

"Malaysia is going to buy six patrol boats at a total cost of RM6 billion or RM1 billion per patrol boat. Of course, Malaysia's patrol boats are going to be far advanced and more sophisticated than those of the Philippines who paid only RM31.5 million for theirs," he wrote.

"The Philippines's patrol boats can only patrol the waters. Malaysia's patrol boats can...well...patrol the waters."

I Know I'm A Gone Case

Taib's Tasteless Monstrosity Across The River ("TMATR")

The New Sarawak State Assembly Building - Symbol Of High & Mighty Corruption By Lowlife Representatives Of An Oppressed People

BN Buys Votes With The People's Own Money

Dear Sarawak Voters, You will receive money from Barisan National for your votes. Keep it and vote for Pakatan Rakyat!

Your Vote Counts!

Register As a Voter Today If You Want To See A Change In Government

Register To Vote Now!

Your Future And That Of Your Children Is At Stake! Sarawakians For Sarawak!

Enough Bullshit!

TV Antara

Not Development But Theft!

Testimony of Penan Communities in Sarawak against Taib Mahmud's evil plan to dominate the state and exploit its resources for his own, his family's and their cronies' benefit: the "Politics of Development", which is actually the "Politics of Theft"

Speak Out!

Sign The Petition - Click Above

The Untouchables

Rimbunan Hijau's World Of Forest Crimes And Political Patronage

David W Brown - http://www.geocities.com/ davidbrown_id/

Author of "Why Governments Fail to Capture Economic Rent: The Unofficial Appropriation of Rain Forest Rent by Rulers in Insular Southeast Asia Between 1970 and 1999"

Does Anybody Care?

Does Taib Mahmud & His Timber Towkay Cronies Care For The Penan?

Taib & His Timber Towkay Friends & Family Only Care For Money & Power

Sarawakians Want Economic & Business Reform!

No More Crony Capitalism! End Monopoly & Unethical Business Practices. Greater & Fairer Distribution of Business Opportunities. More Equitable Distribution of Wealth & State Resources. Bring Our Timber Wealth Back from Overseas. Undertake & Enforce Truly Sustainable Logging Practices. Create More Employment Opportunities in the State at Better Wages. Elimination of Poverty Irrespective of Race. No More Polluting or Dirty Industries. Businesses Must Be Environmentally Conscious.

Sarawakians Want Political Reform!

Justice & Equity, Freedom From Tyranny & Corruption! No More Divide & Rule! Better And Transparent Government. Limit the CM's Post to 2 Terms. Let Voters, Not Parties, Decide Whom They Want As CM. Check All Abuses of Govt Machinery. No More Vote Buying. End Political Party Control of the Mass Media. End Political Intimidation of the People.

Sarawakians Want Land Reform!

Development With Responsibility and Conservation for Future Generations. Amend the Land Law and Policy on NCR Land. Survey All NCR Lands and Issue Communal Titles. Let the NCR Landowners have More Say in the Development of NCR Lands. Curb Abuses by LCDA and other Government Bodies Acting in the Interests of Plantation Developers and not the NCR Landowners. Revise NCR Land Development Schemes for Greater Benefit to the NCR Landowners in Practice. No More Theft of Land for Private Interests Under the Guise of Public Purposes.

Sarawakians Want 80% Of Sarawak's Own Petroleum Revenues! And A 40% Share Of Petronas too!

When Taib Mahmud Is Gone!

Sarawakians Want an East-West Highway like this!

Make it a Freeway!

Shin Yang Bulldozer Overlooking Destruction of Yet Another NCR Land Area

They Bulldozed This Padi Farm Which The Natives Had Worked On For Generations

The Natives of Sarawak Don't Own The Land On Which They have Toiled With Their Blood, Sweat and Tears, But Taib's Rich Chinese Towkay Friends Can Come and Take It Anytime They Want

Taib's Crony Towkays Pay The Police To Evict NCR Landowners

No Land For the Poor in Taib's Sarawak, Only for His Rich Friends & Family

Paramilitary Police Attacking Iban NCR Landowners

On Behalf of Taib's Crony Towkays

Taib Mahmud Bears Full Responsibility for this Murder

So that His Towkay Friends Could Get Their Bloody Hands On Native (NCR) Lands.

Police Attack The Penans With Tear Gas On Behalf Of Their Timber Tycoon Masters

Dismantlement of a Penan logging road blockade near Long Ajeng (Ulu Baram) by riot police using tear gas on 29 September 1993. Due to the excessive use of force during the dismantlement, the Penan reported that 203 persons were injured. Three people died as a result of the police attack.

Monster of Housing

2nd Monster of Resource Mismanagement

Unspeakable Spikar of Taib's State Assembly

Iban Traitor

About Me

I am a member of the human race of Tanjung Melanau ancestry, descendant of Saweng and Adam. No, I do not advocate violence, merely reform. The gory title is only symbolic, as are the images below, but the mission is real, to bring about the downfall of BN and a change in the government of Sarawak for the betterment of all Sarawakians.
Email: altugauw@gmail.com

Join The Lowlife Club

BN Will Pay You Millions But You Will Still Be Lowlife

Frogs

Need To Eat Too - Kenyang-Kenyang

Taib Mahmud's Email

To those who wish to say some last words to Taib Mahmud, please send your emails to: mahalanun@gmail.com. If you are lucky and he is in a good mood he may reply. Emails and replies may be considered for publication on Sarawak Headhunter's blog. Taib Mahmud's blog, Mahalanun, is in the process of being set up, but it may not be completed before he dies or is removed from office.

Senyum Kambing - Melayu Bodoh

Boikot Utusan Malaysia & TV3

Bagan Pinang, Say No To Both ISA

Biodata

Zulkefly Mohd Omar - Hero Of Broga

Outright Bribery & Corruption By BN In Bagan Pinang

Sambutan Hari Raya Aidil Korupsi

UMNO Desperadoes Campaign In Army Camp

Don't they realize that all this can and will be used in court for an election petition if PAS loses?

No To Isa In Bagan Pinang

Bye bye, Pak Blah!

Just a Pity You were Sleeping on the Job and Didn't Get Around to doing What You had Promised to do.

Najib - Prime Monster

Can We Believe Anything This Guy Has To Say Either? He Is Going To Be Worse Than Pak Blah. STOP THIS MAN BEFORE THIS WHOLE COUNTRY IS RUINED!

What Kind Of Attorney-General Is This?

Rogue From Sabah - He doesn't even know that the JAC Bill requires amendments to the Federal Constitution & Consent of Sarawak & Sabah. In his hurry to support a corrupt regime, he has all the finesse of a bull in a china shop.

Malaysiakini

Latest Aliran Monthly

Phantom Postal Voters

Total Blog Directory

"The land belongs to the countless numbers of people who are dead, the few who are living and the multitude of those yet to be born".

Tum Ketumba' - Jerry Kamit

Rampa Menua - Jerry Kamit

Mahatma Gandhi on the Roots of Violence

The Roots of Violence:wealth without work,pleasure without conscience,knowledge without character,commerce without morality,science without humanity,worship without sacrifice,politics without principles.

Only after the last tree has been cut down;Only after the last fish has been caught;Only after the last river has been poisoned;Only then will you realize that money cannot be eaten.- Cree Indian Prophecy